Editing Modern English (section)

==Outline of changes==
The following is an outline of the major changes in Modern English compared to its previous form (Middle English), and also some major changes in English over the course of the 20th century. Note, however, that these are generalizations, and some of these may not be true for specific dialects:

===Morphology===
* "[[like]]", "same as", and "immediately" are used as [[Conjunction (grammar)|conjunctions]].<ref name="CCE"/>
* "[[The]]" becomes optional before certain combinations of [[noun phrase]]s and [[proper name]]s.<ref name="CCE"/>

====Pronouns====
* Loss of distinction in most dialects between "[[whom]]" and "[[Who (pronoun)|who]]" in favour of the latter.<ref name="CCE">{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511642210 |title=Change in Contemporary English |date=2009 |last1=Leech |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Hundt |first2=Marianne |last3=Mair |first3=Christian |last4=Smith |first4=Nicholas |isbn=978-0-521-86722-1 |pages=18–19 }}</ref>
* The elevation of [[singular they]] to some formal registers.<ref name="CCE"/>
* Placement of frequency [[adverb]]s before [[English auxiliaries and contractions|auxiliary verbs]].<ref name="CCE"/>

====Verbs====
* [[Regularization (linguistics)|Regularisation]] of some [[English irregular verbs]].<ref name="CCE"/>
* Revival of the present ("mandative") [[English subjunctive]].<ref name="CCE"/>
* [[Shall and will|"Will" preferred to "shall"]] to mark the [[future tense]] in the first person.<ref name="CCE"/>
* [[Do-support]] for the verb "have".<ref name="CCE"/>
* Increase in [[multi-word verb]]s.<ref name="CCE"/>
* Development of [[auxiliary verb]]s "wanna", "[[gonna]]", "gotta" in informal discourse.<ref name="CCE"/>
* Usage of [[English progressive verb]]s in certain present perfect and past perfect forms.<ref name="CCE"/>

===Phonology===
[[Phonological history of English#Up to the American–British split|Up until the American–British split]] (1600–1725), some major phonological changes in English included:
* [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters|Initial cluster reductions]], like of /ɡn, kn/ into /n/: making [[homophone]]s of gnat and nat, and not and knot.
* The [[meet–meat merger]] in most dialects: making the words "meat", "threat" and "great" have three different vowels, although all three words once rhymed. 
* The [[foot–strut split]]: so that "cut" and "put", and "pudding" and "budding" no longer rhyme; and "putt" and "put" are no longer homophones.
* The [[lot–cloth split]]: the vowel in words like "cloth" and "off" is pronounced with the vowel in "thought", as opposed to the vowel used in "lot".

After the [[Phonological history of English#After American–British split, up to World War II|American-British split]], further changes to English phonology included:
* [[Rhoticity in English|Non-rhotic (/ɹ/-dropping) accents]] develop in the [[English language in England|English of England]], Australasia, and South Africa.
* [[Happy-tensing]]: final [[tenseness|lax]] [ɪ] becomes tense [i] in words like "happy"''.'' Absent from some dialects.
* [[Yod-dropping]]: the [[elision]] of /j/ in certain consonant clusters, like those found in "chute", "rude", "blue", "chews", and "Zeus".
* [[Wine–whine merger]] from the reduction of /ʍ/ to /w/ in all national standard varieties of English, except Scottish and Irish.
* In [[North American English|North American]] and Australasian English, /t, d/ are reduced to an alveolar tap between vowels, realised as [t̬] or [ɾ].
* [[Cot–caught merger]] the merger of /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ to /ɑ/ in some dialects of [[General American]].

===Syntax===
*disuse of the [[T–V distinction]] ([[thou]], [[Ye (pronoun)|ye]]). Contemporary Modern English usually retains only the formal second-person personal pronoun, "[[you]]" (ye), used in both formal and informal contexts.
*use of auxiliary verbs becomes mandatory in [[interrogative]] sentences.
*[[Fewer vs. less|"less", rather than "fewer"]], is used for [[countable noun]]s.<ref name="CCE"/>
*For [[Comparison (grammar)#English|English comparisons]], syntactic comparison (''more'') is preferred to analytic comparison (''-er'').<ref name="CCE"/>
* Usage of the [[Saxon genitive]] ('s) has extended beyond human referents.<ref name="CCE"/>

===Alphabet===
{{see also|Early Modern English#Orthography}}
Changes in alphabet and spelling were heavily influenced by the advent of printing and continental printing practices. 
*The letter [[thorn (letter)|thorn]] (þ), which began to be replaced by ''th'' as early as Middle English, finally fell into disuse. In Early Modern English printing, thorn was represented with the Latin ''y'', which appeared similar to thorn in blackletter typeface <big>(𝖞)</big>. The last vestige of the letter was in [[Typographic ligature|ligature]]s of thorn, y<sup>e</sup> (thee), y<sup>t</sup> (that), y<sup>u</sup> (thou), which were still seen occasionally in the [[King James Bible]] of 1611 and in Shakespeare's folios.
*The letters ''i'' and ''j'', previously written as a single letter, began to be distinguished; likewise for ''u'' and ''v''. This was a common development of the [[Latin alphabet]] during this period.
Consequently, Modern English came to use a purely [[English alphabet|Latin alphabet of 26 letters]].